Sunday, April 27, 2014

The risen Christ bared his wounds so that Thomas could believe. As the body of Christ, we are now sent to witness by bearing our wounds so that we and the world may see how the Triune God is at work, bringing all to faith by Christ’s wounded body.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Poor Thomas; he gets such a bad reputation. His very nickname labels him according to his weakness: Doubting Thomas. No one remembers Thomas as the one who, when Jesus told them that he was returning to Judea, proclaimed to the other disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Instead, we remember Thomas only as the one who doubted: the one who needed to see and to touch his Lord for himself.

Yet, what Thomas offers us in this is a great gift. He openly admits that he is hurt: the loss of his Lord to crucifixion has wounded Thomas deeply. He finds it difficult to trust; he cannot believe unless he touches his Lord’s wounds. Because Thomas shows his wounds by telling his friends that he could not believe unless he encountered Jesus, those first disciples—together with the whole church—get to hear what Jesus does for Thomas, and for us all.

Despite our common characterization of this story, its emphasis ought not to be on Thomas’ doubt, but on Jesus’ consistent appearance to those who are in need of him.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe,” which he says for our sakes. Yet, as he did for Thomas, Jesus does find ways for us to see him. He does this most often through wounds: by encountering us in our pain.

Throughout the entire gospel of John, Jesus reveals himself to those who are hurting, to the wounded, and the way in which he encounters them is in direct response to that woundedness. He meets them in their brokenness and offers them what they most need.

We see this in each of the gospel stories that we heard during this past Lent.

Jesus first reveals himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, to the Samaritan woman at the well: he knows the depths of her wounds, the history of relationships, her disappointments and weariness. All of those things about herself that she might rather hide, Jesus brings to the forefront, so that he may show her that he is offering what she most needs: a relationship with her savior.

Jesus does the same for the man born blind. Jesus returns to the man a second time when he discovers that the man has been driven out from the community. In the midst of his pain of being rejected and his witness not being taken seriously, Jesus goes to him and confirms the man’s witness by revealing that he is the Son of Man, the one promised to this man and to all of Israel.

Then we heard of Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Jesus meets Martha in the midst of her pain of losing her brother to death and reveals himself as the resurrection and the life; he weeps with Mary, and he raises Lazarus from the dead.

In each of these cases, and every single time that Jesus uses an “I am” statement in the Gospel of John in order to reveal himself as God—“I am the bread of life,” “I am the good shepherd,” “I am the vine”—each of these revelations are directly related to what the witness most needs. One who is thirsty needs everlasting water. One who cannot see needs light: the light of the world. One who is dead needs resurrection and life. By their wounds, Jesus encounters them. By their wounds, they know who he is for them.

The same pattern continues even after Jesus’ resurrection. Each of the witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection gets their own intimate encounter with their risen Lord based on what they most need, and he comes to them precisely when they are hurting.

As Mary weeps over the loss of her Lord, Jesus comes to her, calls her by name so that she can recognize him, and gives her what she is most longing for: to be with him again.

Jesus comes to the disciples while they are locked away in fear and doubt. These followers, who had begun to fear that everything that they had believed in, hoped for, and trusted in was now false, need peace, peace that only comes from being in their Lord’s presence again. Jesus knows this, and this is what he offers.

When Peter is hurting out of guilt for having betrayed Jesus, Jesus cooks him breakfast, welcomes him back in, and offers him the forgiveness that Peter most needs.

So it makes sense then that when Thomas is the one who needs Jesus, Jesus comes back just for him so that he may encounter his risen Lord as well.

Jesus knows each of these witnesses: their brokenness and their deepest needs.

What they and we all most need is Christ himself, which he has given wholly and completely to all on the cross.

It is no insignificant detail that the resurrected body of Jesus still bears wounds; we can only know him as the crucified and risen Lord. The healer became the wounded, and by his wounds, we are all healed.

The cross is where we know who God is for us: our God is this Jesus, who on that cross, set us free from sin and death, offers forgiveness and life in a never-ending relationship with the Triune God, and now reveals himself to Thomas and to us all in the midst of our woundedness, bearing his own wounds so that we might be healed and believe.

It is by these wounds that we and the disciples recognize him, by these wounds that God is revealed, and by these wounds that all will come to believe.

It was by these wounds that Kiana came to believe.

In the summer of 2007, I had a camper named Kiana. Nine-year-old Kiana wasn’t really sure what she “believed” about God. She went to Sunday school, and she came to Bible camp because her mom said that she should, but she had a really hard time believing what she heard there. During the week, it became clear that Kiana did not really want to talk about God. She wanted to talk about her dad. She had never met him, she missed him, and she was jealous of her friends who had dads. “Do you think he maybe still loves me?” she asked me.

That Thursday evening at worship, Jesus gave Kiana what she most needed, and he came to her through the wounds of the preacher, Samuel. Samuel shared his own pain of growing up without his father: the wounds of feeling unwanted, unloved, and cast aside, how he longed for his father, hoping that he would return. Then he witnessed how through Jesus, he met his heavenly Father, the God who loved him, wanted to be with him, and came to earth as Jesus Christ so that he could know this God and died so that Samuel might never be separated from or doubt that love again.

After hearing this, Kiana looked up at me through a teary smile and said: “I never knew that Jesus came for me. Me! I never knew that God wanted to be that close to me, as close as a dad. I want that too. Jesus is real, Emily! It was like that man spoke just for me because Jesus knew I needed him.”

Because Samuel was willing to share his pain, how Jesus had been wounded for him, and how Jesus met Samuel in his own wounds, Kiana was able to see how Jesus was at work for her.

That night in worship, Jesus came to her through Samuel’s wounds, and through her own to meet her deepest needs saying, “Kiana, come. Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

When Jesus became real for her, when she knew that God wanted this relationship with her, she shared it with me. And because she shared her wounds with me and how Jesus met her in them—because of her witness—I could say, “Ah, that’s where God is at work. There you are my Lord and my God.”

Kiana, Samuel, Thomas, and Jesus himself all witness to us today that God can take our most painful wounds and use them as some of our most fruitful places of witness.

We are called to face death, to share our pain, to show our wounds, expecting that the risen and wounded Lord will meet us there because we know from the cross that the Triune God is with us in our suffering and encounters us in death, in despair, in wounds. God is made known in the brokenness of the body of Jesus.

Now we are that body, the body of Christ, and through our brokenness, Christ will make himself known, for he tells us, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

There are daily deaths, daily losses in our own lives: we still sin, we have weaknesses. As Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, “We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us…[we are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”

We are the clay jars, broken and fragmented, worn by time, and weathered by storms. We are Christ’s body, wounded, yet carrying this good news of the resurrected Christ who sets all people free and offers life to all.

As long as we pretend that we have it all together, and hide our wounds, we keep ourselves and the good news locked away behind closed doors. We deny that the crucified and risen Lord has power to bring healing out of brokenness, hope out of suffering, and life out of death.

Even the resurrected body of Christ had wounds: this tells us that we can finally stop pretending to be invincible and instead be vulnerable like our Lord, who, though equal with his Father, emptied himself, came as a baby and ultimately poured himself out for us on the cross.

Rather than hide our wounds in embarrassment, thinking that they make us less-than, we may share them openly and honestly, trusting that the Triune God will transform our wounds, us, and all of our relationships as we encounter Christ together in our brokenness.

That is how we bear Christ’s death as his body. If we will dare to share our deepest wounds with one another, if we will be willing to face deaths by giving of ourselves in order to freely care for and love those in our lives, then we will have our eyes opened and discover that our Lord has been there all along, working in the midst of those wounds, working for healing, working to be revealed. God is bringing life out of these deaths so that more may believe and have life in Christ’s name.

When we dare to admit how we have been wounded and how we have wounded one another, the Triune God opens doors for people to see Jesus at work in our wounds and in their own.

Doubting Thomas witnesses to how Jesus brought him to faith. When our Lord sends us to give ourselves away in love by showing our wounds, we witness to just what God can do with a broken, wounded body. Then together, all may say, “Ah, there you are, my Lord and my God.”

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). - John 20:16

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

My favorite story in Scripture is the account in John’s Gospel of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb. It was the first Easter but Mary didn’t know that. She expected death. In her profound grief she couldn’t recognize Jesus. It was only when Jesus called her by name that she was able to see the risen Lord.
Jesus saw Mary. Jesus knew Mary. Jesus spoke “Mary.” It was being completely seen, utterly known and lovingly called that opened Mary Magdalene to the hope of the resurrection and into a deeper relationship with Christ. Because she was seen she could see.
This is Easter vision. We have been seen, known and called by God through the crucified and risen Savior and, having received the Spirit through baptism, we all can now see. We can see Christ and we can see Christ in our neighbor. No one is invisible to God and no one is invisible to us. What wondrous love is this!
So beloved, with newly opened eyes let us be bold to say, “Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Hallelujah!”

This Week’s Forum
April 27 and May 4: “Living, Loving, and Listening Together.”
Vicar Emily Beckering will lead a 2-part series on caring for one another and our-selves through interpersonal communication, empathy, and self-empathy as a follow-up to the Midweek Lenten focus on our life together as a servant community.

Easter Paschal Garden
Thanks to those who helped to beautify Mount Olive’s nave by contributing to this year's Easter Paschal Garden:

New Members to be Received May 18
New members will be received at Mount Olive on May 18, 2014, at the 10:45 a.m. liturgy. A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy.

If you are not a member and are interested in becoming more fully involved in the life of the parish, we invite you to let us know of your interest. You may call the church office and Cha will start the process. If you prefer, you may contact our Evangelism Director, Andrew Andersen, at andrewstpaul@gmail.com, or you may contact Pastor Crippen by calling the church office (612-827-5919) or via e-mail at pastor@mountolivechurch.org

Come One, Come All to the May Day Parade!
For many years the Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries Committee and several other Mount Olive members have made a point of participating and marching in this wonderful annual neighborhood event. If you have never watched the parade, then you have no idea what you are missing. It is unlike any other parade you have ever seen!

Mount Olive has made a commitment to keep the first Sunday in May free of other afternoon events so that all of us can join with our neighborhood in this annual celebration the first Sunday in May every year. This year we are focusing on getting more people involved. We are not marching this year, BUT will have a dedicated Mount Olive observation area reserved so that a whole bunch can watch the parade this year.
Plan to come to the parade on Sunday May 4 after the second liturgy. We will meet in the undercroft where a simple lunch will be provided that can be taken with you to the parade. Vans/cars will be available to shuttle to the Mount Olive observation area on the parade route. We’ll even have extra chairs and blankets so people don’t have to carry anything with them. We will also provide a simple map with directions with where to park and how to find the observation area if people prefer to drive on their own that day.

We are making it as easy as possible for all to come! Please set the time aside now on Sunday, May 4, and watch for more details as the day approaches.

Palm Plants Available
If you would like to have one of the large palm plants which were used to decorate the nave for Palm Sunday and Easter, they are free for the taking!

The plants are currently in the East Assembly room – help yourself!

1 Thessalonians Bible Study
The final Thursday Bible study series before summer begins on Thursday, May 8, and runs for six Thursdays through June 12.

Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Vicar Emily Beckering will lead a study of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.

There will be a light supper when we begin. If you are interested in providing the supper for our first study, please notify Vicar Beckering. All are welcome!

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

For their meeting on May 10, The book discussion group will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, Susan Hill. For their June 14 meeting they will discuss The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson.

TRUST News: Caritas Benefit Concert
Caritas Vocal Ensemble will present a concert entitled, “Wrap Me in Song,” to benefit the TRUST Parish Nursing program. This concert will include the premier of a new piece written especially for them by local composer J. David Moore.

The concert will be held on Sunday, April 27, 4:00 pm, at St. John’s Lutheran Church (4842 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis). Tickets are $15 for adults; $10 for students and seniors, and may be purchased at the door.

Church Library News
Stop in the church library soon to see the books on the display across from the check-out desk. Now that spring has decided to stay around, there are more possibilities for reading on our decks, during a coffee break, or eventually even out relaxing at the beach. The books on display include the following:

•Celebrate Joy! (a delightful book to brighten your day), by Velma Seawell Daniels
•Roads to Reality (deeper life experiences from famous Christian women), by Joyce Blackburn
•Life’s Growing Years (a book of inspiration), by D. Verner Swanson
•A Touch of Wonder (a book to help people stay in love with life), by Arthur Gordon
•God’s Work in Our Lives (true stories of God's touch - a Guideposts Book, Volumes I and II)
•Frederick Buechner: Novelist and Theologian of the Lost and Found, by Marjorie Cassbier McCoy
•Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Makers of the Modern Theological Mind, by Dallas M. Roark, ed. by Bob Patterson
•Time Out! A Man’s Devotional (featuring some of today's best-selling authors), compiled by Clint & Mary Beckwith
•Uncompromising Faith (one man's notes from prison), by Pavel Uhorskai

Someone left at the library door a four volume VHS video set of The Visual Bible (Acts) -- the only dramatization using the actual scriptures from the NIV Bible, but with no note to identify the donor. Please let me know if that was your gift!

I recently read an article by Meganne Farbrega of the National Book Critic's Circle, who writes about "The End of Your Life Book Club” (by Will Schwelbe, published by Alfred A. Knopf). This book is about a mother who is dying with a terminal illness and a son who remembers a childhood spent in his parent's home where reading was encouraged and good books were always available to enrich their lives. The book further details the great rewards that both mother and son felt as they decided to re-read and discuss many books together as the end of her life approaches. Perhaps others in a similar circumstance might find this book and this idea of immeasurable help! The other resounding message that comes through the text is that "there are so many books and so little time!"

- Leanna Kloempken

Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks
Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!

Life Transitions Support Group to Begin May 14
Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?

We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?

Beginning May 14, join us for a four-week structured support group at Mount Olive. Cathy Bosworth and Amy Cotter will serve as facilitators for this group on Wednesday evenings. Each week a brief educational component will be offered with time for you to share personally in a confidential, supportive setting. Vicar Emily Beckering will offer guidance on the Lament Psalms, which we will use as a vehicle for prayer and healing. The group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room.

If you are interested in attending, or have questions, please contact Marilyn Gebauer (651-704-9539, email gebauevm@bitstream.net) or call the church office.

The Ascension of Our LordThursday, May 29, 2014Holy Eucharist7:00 p.m.

Restorative Justice Community Action (RJCA)
At Mount Olive, living a life in Christ means that we worship in all aspects of our life. I am privileged to be working in a profession of restorative work where adults and youth who have made mistakes are able to resolve their situation with dignity. Restorative justice creates a safe space, a sacred space, where people who have committed wrong doing meet face-to-face with community members and direct victims to talk about what happened, the impact it has, and create a way to make amends. It is a blessing to see criminal activity resolved in a non-adversarial way which allows for healing by bringing people together to make things right.

RJCA is honored to receive 9 visitors from south and central Asia hosted by the US Department of State on April 24th . Their visit is around Human Rights Advocacy and Awareness and they are coming to learn about how RJCA helps empower Minneapolis neighborhoods to enhance offender accountability for certain crimes by empowering local citizens and communities to participate directly in the justice process.

Mount Olive supports RJCA through funds and volunteers. I would like to invite you to learn about us at our annual fundraiser, “Is there justice in hell?” at Hell’s Kitchen on Monday, April 28th 6-9PM in downtown Minneapolis. $20 at the door goes directly to RJCA. City Attorney Susan Segal will be the guest speaker, cabaret entertainment by Denise Prosek and friends, testimonials, silent auction, and fun are to be had. Please come, check out our website, www.rjca-inc.org or stop me in church for a conversation. Let our worship be in all we do!

Cynthia Prosek

Travel to Italy!

Walt Blue will host a trip to Italy next fall (October 6-20) under the aegis of the OLLI Program (University of Minnesota).

The group will visit (briefly) Milan, Cremona, Bologna and Ravenna, and will spend over a week in Florence, with multiple day trips to the regional cities of Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and San Gimignano. The cost of the trip is $4,700, and it includes airfare, accommodations, meals (all breakfasts, five group dinners), ground transport, sightseeing, porterage, local guides, gratuities and taxes. For more information, contact Walt Blue at 651-646-3355, or via email to wagane@gmail.com. You may also contact Group Travel Directors (952-881-7811 / groups@gtd.org).

National Lutheran Choir to Present “Exalt.”

This Spring’s “Exalt” program showcases the artistic excellence of the National Lutheran Choir with works for choir and organ alongside unaccompanied choral pieces.

Nationally renowned organist, Aaron David Miller, joins the NLC for a program that is both affable and energizing. Some of the works on the program include: Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum; a world premiere of a commission by Zachary Wadsworth, Great or Small; and Frank Martin’s Mass for Unaccompanied Double Chorus.

Organ pipes and choral pipes join together for a unique experience that will leave the listener inspired and revitalized. NLC Artistic Director, David Cherwien, conducts.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Our Lord Jesus called us to follow his path of suffering for the sake of the world, and that frightens us even more than death sometimes: when we meet him, risen, he calms our fears by showing us where that path ultimately goes, and how he goes with us.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, the Resurrection of Our Lord, year A; texts: Matthew 28:1-10 (with reference to John 13 and Psalm 27:1)

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“Do you know what I have done to you?” On Thursday we heard Jesus say this to his disciples. Do you know what I have done to you? He had just washed their feet, obviously. But he had a deeper question: did they understand this? So he went on, “I have set you an example. You call me Teacher and Lord, and I am, but I have just served you. This is the example. This is now what you are called to do. As I have loved you, so you should love one another.”

When the women came to the tomb, first the angel, and later Jesus, said, “Do not be afraid.” But only minutes after those words on Thursday, Jesus also had to say, “Do not be afraid.”

Do you understand why? The women were afraid at the tomb; why? Because of the rolled away stone, the angel from heaven? Probably. The guards were afraid, so much so that they were paralyzed on the ground, as if they were dead.

But I think there is a deeper fear at play for disciples of our Lord Jesus to which we need our Lord to speak. The women came to the tomb to pay respects to their dead Master, and may or may not have remembered he promised he would rise from the dead. But what they did know was this: he had intentionally taken the path that led to his death. He was no victim, he chose this way. Whatever happened afterward. And they knew that he had also clearly, openly called them, commanded them even, that if they were to follow him, this was their path as well.

Now do you see, sisters and brothers, why we, who are also disciples of this crucified Lord, might be afraid? Why we might deeply need to hear our Lord’s comforting voice on the road of our lives?

We return to Thursday and Friday and Saturday, to the Great Three Days (which actually conclude tonight at sundown), so that we can fully understand this day, this morning. And what comes next.

This path of Jesus, this chosen way he takes, the example he sets before us, is central to all the imagery of the Three Days. Did you ever notice that all our images of the faithful path we see in these days involve loss?

Jesus on his knees, washing the feet of his disciples and saying, “do this.” Lose your dignity and pride, get on your knees and serve each other.

Jesus giving bread and wine and tying it to his body and blood, to his death. So every time we celebrate the meal, as Paul told us Thursday, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Every Eucharist speaks of his sacrifice, is shaped by this image.

Jesus in the garden that night, doing the Father’s will. Setting aside what he wants, his way, and willingly choosing his Father’s way.

Friday’s cross is a massive image of loss, but remember the truth of the Gospels: this was a chosen path; this is in fact the very place where Jesus begins to rule in truth, as King of the world. His rule will be found in giving up of power and dominance, so Jesus gives up all use of power, forbidding the angel armies and Peter to intervene. His rule will be found in losing oneself for the sake of others, of entering suffering and death to redeem all, so Jesus is, on the humiliating cross of Rome, declared King by his enemies.

And last night, when we turned to stories of deliverance, we saw the same images again and again.

The Israelites have to trust the Lord and go into the sea, risk their death, before they get to the other side. They have to go into wilderness to find Promised Land.

Jonah sacrifices himself to save the ship, tells his fellow sailors to throw him in, because the storm has come due to his disobedience. The swallowing of Jonah by the great sea monster – a horrible image – is actually God’s deliverance of Jonah from drowning.

And the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, go into the flames saying, “We don’t know if God will save us or not, but we won’t bow down to your statue. So do what you will.”

Christian people often say they are not afraid of death, they are more afraid of dying. There’s more truth in that that we know. We mean the process of death, the last hours, days, months, when we say that, of course. Christians trust in the resurrection of the dead. But many fear lingering, painful deaths, fear being a burden to loved ones, fear suffering that can’t be alleviated.

But we’ve made sacrificial love, the love Jesus has, the love to which he called all his disciples, such a high standard – to give one’s life – that we have effectively removed it from our daily lives. And that’s because that’s the dying we really fear.

Because if we truly understood Jesus’ example, it would mean that we would live in our closest relationships losing ourselves for the sake of the other. Dying, even. Dying to getting our own way. Dying to “being ourselves” and acting however we feel like acting. Dying to being centered on ourselves that we might focus on others.

And in our broken world, sometimes it seems as if the only ones who are dying to self are those who are forced into it by abuse and attack by those closest to them, or forced into it by a system that perpetuates poverty and want in a world of abundance. This is not the servant life Christ imagines. He calls us all to a world where all give of themselves to others and so all are whole and served and loved. But that kind of giving is a dying to self for the sake of others.

That kind of dying we fear. Because suddenly we’re not talking about a hypothetical situation where we might be asked to give our lives and we hope we’d find the courage to do what Jesus said.

There’s nothing hypothetical about daily life in this world. And that’s where the dying, the serving, the sacrificial life is lived. Yes, Jesus died on a cross, the ultimate end of the path he chose. But before then, he was on his knees, washing filthy feet. And somehow he thought they were the same kind of sacrifice.

Our Lord tells us we are needed to save the world, to offer ourselves to end hunger, oppression, suffering. We know this, it’s our call.

But if we cannot learn to die in our daily lives, how will we ever handle the big tasks? How can we lose what we need to lose to transform our city so that others might have life, if we’re not even willing to start in our own homes, our own relationships? How can we lose what we need to lose to end poverty and hunger for people we’ve never met around the world if we’re afraid of losing to those whom we love the most?

So make no mistake, we need our Lord’s words today, “Do not be afraid.”

We need to set aside our fears that we might lose in this world.

That is, start finding ways to help each other find courage to become different people in our homes, at work, at church. Each of us has choices every day where we could be on our knees to others with our lives, and as we walk this path together we can help encourage each other. And we can repeat Jesus’ words to each other, “Don’t be afraid.” So that the Spirit begins to change us into people who truly look like Jesus in this world.

We need to set aside our fears of suffering, too.

We’ve bought into the world’s notion that all suffering is bad and to be avoided. So we even avoid people in grief and pain because of our fear of suffering, or tell them by words or actions that we don’t want to hear about it. When in fact our Lord has said that when we enter into that suffering and pain of others with them, though it costs, it is the way we live, and they live. So facing our fear of suffering, learning that there are far worse things in this world, so that we can stand with others in their pain, will need our reminding each other of Jesus’ words, too.

But mostly, we simply need to hear our Lord and trust.

Because we’re not going to be able to get rid of these fears by straining. Only by trusting. As a child trusts a parent, simply because the parent says, “Don’t be afraid.”

That’s where we help each other, as we listen, and walk with each other, when each of us fears this servant life and what it might mean for us. When we speak Jesus’ comfort into that situation, we stand in his name. And gradually, together we learn to trust that we need not be afraid anymore.

And all this flows from this great joy of today: when the risen Jesus tells us “do not be afraid,” he frees us from paralysis.

Isn’t it remarkable that the armed, armored, trained soldiers are terrified into paralysis and the weak, ordinary women are standing, and able to go and tell? They are like dead men, the soldiers. The women are alive.

They’re still afraid, Matthew says. But they leave the tomb to do the angel’s bidding “with fear and great joy.” And great joy.

That’s what we are here to know today, why we’ve come, why this day is the day that matters. Why this is the true day that the LORD has made and in which we rejoice and are glad.

Because this is what Jesus’ empty tomb means: our path may lead to suffering, to loss, to little daily deaths every day. But we belong to a Lord who enters death to defeat it. And who rises from that death to new life.

If Jesus had not risen, the call to follow, to serve, to lose, would still stand for his disciples. But in rising, he tells us that this path that involves dying is ultimately a path of life. Certainly life after we die.

But life when we die daily, too: resurrection life filled the early Church and ever since, and they lived without fear, changed their community life, their personal life, changed the world.

And resurrection life fills our lives as well, gives us the courage to live as servant disciples, in sacrificial love, fills our lives with meaning and joy. Which balances the fear we sometimes feel, just as it has for disciples ever since those first women.

This is the gift of “do not be afraid”: we are freed to live without fear, and to follow our Lord’s example and path.

And perhaps we might begin by recognizing we are learning this path together, and it is a path, so we won’t be fully where we are going to be. Sometimes our paralysis and fear can come from thinking we have to have it all together all at once.

But we certainly can start with what we might call baby steps. Start in our homes and lives, at work, here in this place. We can start learning what it is to walk the path of dying there, where we spend most of our lives, knowing that we are filled with the life of the risen Lord always.

Then, as we learn this, we can also begin to learn what that means in this city, in our neighborhoods, in our nation and world. We are called to bear in our bodies the love of God for this world, love as Jesus has. There’s no limit to where we can be useful.

“Do you know what I have done to you?” Jesus asks us.

And we answer today, “yes, though we’re kind of afraid of what this might mean. But we see you are alive and ruling through this losing, this serving, this giving, this loving.” We hear our Lord say, “Do not be afraid,” and that gives us the courage we need to go out and be like our Lord ourselves. And yes, we go out a little afraid, still. We will need to look for our Lord on our roads so he can continue to meet us and continue to say, “Do not be afraid.” We go out a little in fear, like those women.

But we also, like those women, go out in great joy. Because our Lord is risen; the Triune God has entered the death and suffering and evil and pain of this world and of our lives and changed it into life and wholeness and good and joy, and that is a gift we know now, even as we long for its fullness when we make our final journey through death.

Do not be afraid, my friends, for we belong to the Lord of Life. It is a path he has walked already to which we are now called. And since the risen Lord is our light and our salvation, what shall we fear?

Thursday, April 17, 2014

In the Word, water, wine and bread—and now through us—Christ pours out his love for all the world. Vicar Emily Beckering; Maundy Thursday; texts: John 13:1-17, 31b-34; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

In tonight’s gospel, and in our own journey through Holy Week, we are nearing the end. We are drawing closer to Jesus’ crucifixion and death. In these last hours, Jesus works intently to show and form his disciple by his love. Through everything that happens in tonight’s gospel, and through everything in our liturgy this evening, Christ is pouring out his love for us and for the world.

Christ pours this love out in water, Word, bread and wine.

Jesus first pours this love out upon his disciples by washing their feet. Their master and teacher is now the one who kneels before them. They do not know what he has done to them, or will do for them, nor will they until his resurrection. He is not only cleaning their feet, or even reversing their roles, but rather expressing his deep love for them; it is a tangible experience of that love for them to cling to in the days ahead that will stir up doubt and fear. As he pours the water out over their feet, he pours out his love over them. In doing so, he shows them the love that he will ultimately pour out on the cross.

He also points to this love as he pours the wine and breaks the bread. In this same night in which he will be betrayed, as we hear from Paul, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, saying, “This is my body for you.” And he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

This evening, in these same Words, water, and wine, Christ pours out his love upon us as he did for the disciples. Jesus is also the one at our feet. When we watch the water being poured out over our sisters’ and brothers’ feet later this evening, we see Christ’s love.

When we dip our fingers into the font, the water which made us God’s own and united us with Christ’s death and resurrection, we touch Christ’s love. By this water, we too have been washed clean.

Through the absolution given to us at the beginning of worship, we heard Christ’s love saying, “I forgive you all of your sins.”

These same words are given to us tonight at the table. When we watch the wine poured out, drink it, and eat the bread, we are fed by Christ’s love. With, in, and under the bread and wine, Christ says to us, “Out of the deep, unfailing love with which I love you, I promise the forgiveness of all your sins and eternal life.”

It is as if through all of this, the Triune God is saying to us, “are you beginning to see how much I love you?”

If we are just beginning to see, then we see the full extent of Jesus’ love by his death on the cross, where he literally empties himself, pouring himself out for the sake of love.

As such, Jesus Christ is the Triune God’s love poured out, wholly and completely for all.

This is how we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us. In him, we see God’s aching passion for the world, God’s desire to be united with us, and the lengths that God was willing to go to make that relationship possible and to show us the depth with which we are loved. God the Son would rather die than lose us to disobedience, distrust, or fear of death. By his death and resurrection, he has conquered sin, death, and everything that would otherwise prevent us from loving God or one another so that we need not fear anything; anything that we could lose—even our life itself—has already ultimately been won.

This is also how we know who God is: that Christ laid down his life for us. In him, we know for sure that God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. The Triune God did not choose to be revealed through legions of angels, through earthquakes, wind, or fire but through the silence of a tomb entered because he loved us to the point of death while we were still sinners. God did not deal with this sin and brokenness by punishing us, abandoning or giving up on us, or destroying us, but by taking it all on through Christ and offering us forgiveness, relationship, and everlasting life. Even in the night in which he was betrayed, he gives himself fully to his betrayer.

We see God’s full intention in Christ—the one who was born that all might know God’s love, died that no one be separated from it, rose again that we might have life in his name, prayed for us in the garden of Gethsemane before we were born, and comes to us tonight in the bread and wine so that we might trust that all of these promises are for us—we have been loved since the very beginning and that love will never waiver.

Now that we know that we are his own and loved to the end, we are given a new commandment: to love as Christ has loved us.

Now we become Christ’s love poured out.

Through the love with which he loves us, Christ unites us at his table. As we eat the bread and drink the wine, Christ makes us into his actual body and blood. As his body, we will live, love, and die like Christ. As his blood, we will be poured out where God’s love is needed. God will place our neighbor’s feet into our hands and ours into our neighbor’s. This is not done figuratively, but in real and profound ways.

Just as washing the twelve’s feet is physical expression of the love that Jesus will pour out for them on the cross, the disciples are to wash one another’s feet as way to act out laying down their lives for one another. It is a practice meant to train their hearts, minds, and bodies to love one another, first in humble service, and then by giving of themselves for each another.

In the same way, we know that the washing of feet once a year is not the fulfillment of Christ’s command, but we do this to train our hearts, minds, and bodies in the posture of giving of ourselves to care for, support, and love one another.

We do the same when we pass Christ’s peace, so that we learn to live our whole lives sharing Christ’s peace with others through words, service, and presence. We share the peace intentionally before we go to the table so that we make a habit of seeking and offering forgiveness and reconciling relationships in order to prepare for Christ to make us into the one body, without divisions.

In all of this—the washing of feet, the passing of peace, the breaking of bread, consoling one another—the Holy Spirit forms us to love one another as Christ. All of these actions are an acting-out beforehand, an internalization of the new commandment so that this love becomes so much a part of us that when the occasion arises to lay down our lives for one another, we do it without hesitation.

We know that we are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome strangers, and visit the sick and imprisoned—and we do do this, with grateful hearts. But the new commandment that we are given to love one another as Christ has loved us pushes us even further: to love so fiercely that we let go, lose, forgive, die.

This call often comes at the most inconvenient times; the Holy Spirit has a way of putting people on our hearts. When we find ourselves resisting these nudgings, dragging our feet, avoiding—whenever we find ourselves asking, “Lord, let this cup pass from me,”—these moments are when we need to pay the most attention because it is to these places of difficulty and death that we are sent. These are the places where Christ’s love is most needed.

But we are also promised that the Holy Spirit will keep working in us until we become so secure in Christ’s love that we no longer fear death…until we trust that in dying, the Triune God will bring new life: restored relationships, forgiveness, hope, and Christ’s love will show forth. Just as we know who God is through Christ’s love, the world will know Christ through our love. As often as we eat of this bread and drink from this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. As often as we give of ourselves for one another and for the world, then we proclaim the Lord’s love until he comes.

This day, this week, this whole life—even the new commandment that we are given—is an outpouring of God’s love. All that the Triune God has done through Christ has been done in that love, poured out in water, in wine and bread, in Word, in death, and now through us, in order that all may know that they are Christ’s own, loved without end. We were made and saved in love, by love, for love. That love was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

As today’s sun sets, the Triduum quickly approaches. With its arrival, we, together with our brothers and sisters around the world, keep the greater Church’s tradition of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter. As we do, we move with our Lord Jesus Christ from death into life.

A pastor from Argentina once shared this observation with me: “In Argentina, our crosses always bear Jesus. They help us never to forget that Christ is with us in our suffering. But we are forever in the death of Christ; I never celebrated the resurrection as a child. In the U.S., your crosses are always empty. Christ is risen indeed, and you know hope. We cling to the crucifixion, you to the resurrection. What I have learned is that we must hold them both together.”

The observation is, of course, a generalization that does not capture the breadth of witness in either country. It does, however, witness to the whole of the Gospel. The Triduum does the same. Christ lived, died, and rose again among us all for the sake of love, and so we hold this all together as we tell again the story that shapes our own.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter form the very pattern of our lives. In the breaking of bread and the washing of feet, we are formed to serve as Christ commanded and to love one another as he loves us. Because we are called to follow in the way of Christ, we will also give of ourselves for the sake of love. And through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will raise us each day from death, darkness, and despair to live again as Christ.

So as we gather together to keep the Triduum, we sing, pray, eat, drink, wash one another in, and tell again of God’s love and mercy.
In the telling, we are transformed; the Triune God will be in our midst to shape us yet again to be Christ for the world so that not only these Three Days, but our whole lives, witness to the Gospel of our Lord.

- Vicar Emily Beckering

Adult Forum
There will be no Adult Forum on Easter Sunday, April 20. Forums resume next week.

Holy Week and Triduum at Mount Olive

Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week, April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave

Noon Liturgy on Maundy Thursday
There will be a simple noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday this year, in addition to the Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. In the evening will be the full rite beginning the Triduum, including confession and absolution, footwashing, and the stripping of the altar.

The noon service is offered to accommodate those who have difficulty getting out in the evening, and will include confession and absolution and the Eucharist.

Books Needed!
Many public libraries are holding their Friends of the Library Used Book Sales in April and May. The Way to Goals Tutoring Program would very much appreciate some new "reads." Fiction, non-fiction, or reference books appropriate for reading levels from 2nd grade through 7th grade would be eagerly used by the students.
Thanks for any help you can offer!

Easter Carry-In Brunch
There will be a carry-in Easter Brunch between liturgies on Easter morning, April 20. Bring your favorite Easter treats to share.

Come One Come All to the May Day Parade!
For many years the Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries Committee and several other Mount Olive members have made a point of participating and marching in this wonderful annual neighborhood event. If you have never watched the parade you have no idea what you are missing. It is unlike any other parade you have ever seen!

Mount Olive has made a commitment to keep the first Sunday in May free of other afternoon events so that all of us can join with our neighborhood in this annual celebration the first Sunday in May every year. This year we are focusing on getting more people involved. We are not marching this year, BUT will have a dedicated Mount Olive observation area reserved so that a whole bunch can watch the parade this year.
Plan to come to the parade on Sunday May 4 after the second liturgy. We will meet in the undercroft where a simple lunch will be provided that can be taken with you to the parade. Vans/cars will be available to shuttle to the Mount Olive observation area on the parade route. We’ll even have extra chairs and blankets so people don’t have to carry anything with them. We will also provide a simple map with directions with where to park and how to find the observation area if people prefer to drive on their own that day.

We are making it as easy as possible for all to come! Please set the time aside now on Sunday, May 4, and watch for more details as the day approaches.

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on May 10, The book discussion group will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, Susan Hill. For their June 14 meeting they will discuss The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson.

A Note of Thanks
Thank you to the following people who worked hard on sprucing up the chancel and nave in preparation for the Easter celebration: Peggy Hoeft, Elizabeth Hunt, Tim Lindholm, TJ Schnabel, Sandra & Steve Pranschke, Bonnie McLellan, Lynn Ruff, Christina Harrison, Cynthia Prosek, and Eunice Hafmeister.

Three times a year Altar Guild members and other volunteers gather to do in-depth cleaning and brass polishing. I appreciate their efforts.

- Steve Pranschke,
Altar Guild Chair

Capital Campaign Corner
Sometime this week you will receive a letter from Vestry President Lora Dundek and Pastor Crippen asking you make a pledge or donation to our ongoing capital campaign. As the letter explains, the Vestry is asking for everyone's help to fully fund our designated funds and to provide a two-month cash reserve to help us cope with the ups and downs of congregational giving.

This is a financially healthy church. We meet our budget every year and give generously to causes missions outside our walls. But we need a stronger financial foundation as we move forward into the future, and this is what we hope to gain with this campaign.

New Video Ministry
The Mount Olive Foundation approved a proposal to start a video ministry project for Mount Olive. The proposal included getting our own fine video camera, tripod, memory cards, and a computer with the capable of producing high quality videos.

As word of this video project has spread, I have heard from several who are interested in helping with the project. We have members with much experience in producing video and I am excited to get people involved. A word of thanks to Elisabeth Hunt for setting up the special Mount Olive YouTube channel.
The first thing I learned is that there is a reason longer movies take time to prepare, edit, add titles, and then have the computer and the internet render them for YouTube and then go through the whole upload and processing process. The learning curve is getting better but the entire process is time consuming, so please be patient. I am excited that we now have our first examples to share with everyone.

Our first video project was to record the four-part Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Series on the Book of Genesis. The entire series is now on YouTube and the links to the videos are below. When you go online to view your first video you will note that under the YouTube screen there is a note that tells you there are four videos. If you click on that note (link) all four videos will appear and you can then click on the next video you want to view. If you save the YouTube link in your “favorite” online file you will be able to access the videos quickly.

Dwight Penas and Susan Cherwien do a masterful job in organizing thought-provoking adult forum sessions throughout the year. As Dwight explains in the opening video, the Mount Olive Foundation approved a grant which allowed Mount Olive to bring Earl Schwartz in for four consecutive weeks. Before Earl’s sessions even began some Mount Olive members were concerned because they knew they would have to miss one or more of his lectures and choir members always had to step out before each session was over. With our new videos anyone can now go back and view all four sessions in their entirety.

This Forum project is the first video project and you will see as you view the four videos that I have experimented with titles etc. Looking back, I see I made a title error in one of the bottom titles of video 3 and called it session 2. I hope to correct the error but it literally will take over 3 hours to make the change. I look forward to your comments so we can always improve our videos and that the videos will reflect the quality of worship and devotion we share at Mount Olive.

- Paul Nixdorf

Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Videos
Video #1 - February 23, 2014: http://youtu.be/nzsw0rvT2TU
Video #2 - March 2, 2014: http://youtu.be/JDUkEsLwCeE
Video #3 - March 9, 2014: http://youtu.be/UXTlVxamxqg
(note) an error in the bottom title says this is the second session,
it should say, the third session.
Video #4 - March 16, 2014: http://youtu.be/tNJPn2voGeU

Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks
Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!

Life Transitions Support Group to Begin May 14
Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?

We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?

Beginning May 14, join us for a four-week structured support group at Mount Olive. Cathy Bosworth will serve as facilitator for this group on Wednesday evenings. Each week a brief educational component will be offered with time for you to share personally in a confidential, supportive setting. Vicar Emily Beckering will offer guidance on the Lament Psalms, which we will use as a vehicle for prayer and healing. Tentatively, the group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room. We will establish a firm meeting time when we know what works best for those who wish to participate.

If you are interested in attending, or have questions, please contact Cathy Bosworth (952-949-3679, email marcat8447@yahoo.com) or call the church office. If three or more people express interest in participating, each will be contacted to confirm the group will meet as planned.

Travel to Italy!

Walt Blue will host a trip to Italy next fall (October 6-20) under the aegis of the OLLI Program (University of Minnesota).

The group will visit (briefly) Milan, Cremona, Bologna and Ravenna, and will spend over a week in Florence, with multiple day trips to the regional cities of Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and San Gimignano. The cost of the trip is $4,700, and it includes airfare, accommodations, meals (all breakfasts, five group dinners), ground transport, sightseeing, porterage, local guides, gratuities and taxes. For more information, contact Walt Blue at 651-646-3355, or via email to wagane@gmail.com. You may also contact Group Travel Directors (952-881-7811 / groups@gtd.org).

National Lutheran Choir to Present “Exalt.”

This Spring’s “Exalt” program showcases the artistic excellence of the National Lutheran Choir with works for choir and organ alongside unaccompanied choral pieces.

Nationally renowned organist, Aaron David Miller, joins the NLC for a program that is both affable and energizing. Some of the works on the program include: Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum; a world premiere of a commission by Zachary Wadsworth, Great or Small; and Frank Martin’s Mass for Unaccompanied Double Chorus.

Organ pipes and choral pipes join together for a unique experience that will leave the listener inspired and revitalized. NLC Artistic Director, David Cherwien, conducts.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

It is in this Passion of our Lord that Christ Jesus becomes king, shows the depth of divine royalty, reveals the shape of God’s plan to regain rule over this disobedient planet: God, and so also we, will enter into the depths of evil to redeem it from within.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, the Sunday of the Passion, year A; texts: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26:14 – 27:66

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

You want to know what we’ve been missing about today, and this whole week? This is not a day that begins in triumph and ends in tragedy, it is a day that from beginning to end is about seeing the kingdom of God come to be. The cross isn’t a setback; it’s the whole plan. It’s where Jesus acts as the true king.

Matthew, along with Luke and John, reminds us that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem this week was the coming of a king. Riding on a donkey, with palms and shouts, this evoked the prophet’s promise that this is how the king would arrive. So there’s nothing humble about Jesus’ actions on this Sunday, at least not in the sense of the symbolism of his ride into town. He was declaring himself king.

But we also just heard Matthew tell us that on Friday of this week the soldiers also hailed Jesus as king, and gave him royal appointments and clothes, and the religious leaders also called him king, on the cross. At the same time, the Gospels all agree that over Jesus’ head at his death was a sign – the same sign all criminals received over their crosses, the sign announcing their name and their crime – and that on Jesus’ sign it declared him a king, the King of the Jews. Now, Pilate likely intended that as mocking – his crime was his kingship – and the religious leaders certainly read it as such. And the soldiers and religious leaders also were mocking when they named this of Jesus. But actually, they all, unknowingly, were proclaiming God’s truth, that here, on this cross, the King was beginning his rule. And the Gospel writers all understand this.

Jesus becomes king on the cross, that’s what the Gospels say. The reason for our walking through the events of this week every year, as we’ve done for 2,000 years, is that we more and more understand what happened and why and what it means for us. But we seemed to have missed this point.

There is a disconnect in our thinking between Jesus’ ministry before this week and the week itself and that has misled us.

We’ve always considered Jesus’ teachings and miracles and ministry as good and worthy of consideration, the start of a great story. And then we come to this week and we think that it all ends badly.

We blame Judas for his betrayal, the disciples for their fear, the Jewish authorities for their blindness and jealousy, the crowds for their fickleness, or the Roman governor for his cowardice. If only people would have seen the truth about Jesus, we think, none of this would have happened. This week is a tragic mistake, an accident.

Or sometimes we see the events of this week as a divine court judgment where the Son of God is tortured and punished because of our sin. Sometimes it almost sounds like we think almighty God has a blood lust that has to be satisfied, and since our sins are deserving of death, if we’re to avoid that, someone needs to die, someone’s blood needs to be shed. So in comes Jesus.

But in fact, the Gospels tell us from the beginning that Jesus, the Son of God, will bring in God’s kingdom, will inaugurate the rule of the Triune God, in losing and dying, in entering evil and suffering personally in order to overturn it.

From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus says “the kingdom of God is near, is at hand.” And he says that in that kingdom, the blessed ones are the meek, the sufferers, the peacemakers. He says he will rule as king, but that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve.

He declares that in him God has come to be with the broken, the weak, the sad, the dispossessed, and will take on all of that with them, and so bring them to life. He says that in the kingdom, you lose your life instead of trying to save it, and that you pray for your enemies, love your enemies, even.

How could anyone have expected anything other than the cross from someone who talks like this?

We talk a lot about how the people of Jesus’ day had expectations of Messiah that Jesus didn’t fulfill, that he’d be a political leader, and we smugly note how misguided they were. We ignore that we have the same expectations post-Easter. We expect now that he’s risen, now God ought to clean house, rule with power, take care of all this evil, these problems.

We pray as if God’s whole role is to remove suffering from our lives and our world by magic or miracle. And we act in the world like people always have acted, seeking our own way, using power whenever we can to make happen what we think needs to happen.

And we expect that is how God is supposed to work in the world. But that’s because we haven’t seen that the cross was the beginning of Jesus’ rule. We’ve learned nothing from the mistakes of 2,000 years ago.

The Hebrew prophets actually saw the truth coming. We heard today the first part of the servant songs of Isaiah which speak of God’s anointed servant offering his life for the people, and not just for Israel, but to bless the whole world. That it would come by God’s anointed taking on suffering and pain, undeservedly, in order to transform it. Why else do you think the Evangelists persist in saying that all this was told in the Scriptures already?

If this week’s events are a tragic mistake, or Judas’ (or anyone’s) fault, how do you make sense of the prophets, of Jesus’ teaching? If this week’s events are God’s need for blood and punishment of someone, and Jesus is going to get it instead of us, how do you make sense of the prophets, of Jesus’ teaching?

So this is what we know from Scripture: Pilate’s sign is the hidden truth of God. This is the way God will rule in the world, not through power and might and destruction of evil. We just heard Matthew tell us Jesus had 72,000 angels to command should he have wanted a way of power and dominance. He could have avoided the cross. That he did not needs to teach us something.

By entering into evil and losing all power to it, by offering himself to restore all things, the Son of God begins God’s rule. The cross isn’t the Father’s bloodlust being answered by the Son’s death, because in the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit are offering God’s own life for the sake of the world.

The cross isn’t a tragic mistake, or the blame of any ancient or modern sinners, but God’s ultimate and final way to deal not just with my sin or yours, but the sinful disobedience of this entire world.

God rules by losing, at the cross, and still today. That’s what this week needs to teach us.

So this is why we do what we do today, and for the next seven days.

We face this week as a solemn contemplation, not as our seeking maudlin pantomime, trying to re-create emotions from 2,000 years ago. We contemplate the events of today, and each day, that we might learn the truth about God’s rule in the world, a truth we’ve lost by not seeing this week as God would have us see it. We walk this path each year because we need to take evil as seriously as God does, and because only by regular contemplation can we begin to learn what God is doing.

If we avoid such contemplation, we take great risks.

We risk missing the whole point about God and evil even for today, how God is actually working, not how we want God to work. Knowing that this is how God did and does deal with it is critical to our understanding of how God acts in the suffering of the world today.

We also risk missing the whole point about how we are to engage the world and evil, how this completely sets aside any question of power/over and dominance for us as well. Isaiah’s servant songs are famously ambiguous: you can’t tell by reading if it’s God’s anointed, one person, who enters suffering to redeem all, or if it’s God’s anointed, the whole people of God, who do. I think the answer is both. Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, this path of loss and sacrifice, of entering evil and suffering, is not just Jesus’ chosen path. It’s our called path.

The Son of God says that suffering is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen, that by sharing the suffering of others we redeem it, that by offering ourselves to stand against evil, though it will cost us, we take the path by which all will be restored. This is not what the world thinks. And we can’t know this, believe this, live this, if we don’t take seriously our contemplation of God’s work in this week every year.

This is the truth about this week: we see how God is truly King over all things.

We just sang, “Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine; never was love, dear King! That is the truth: there is nothing more divine, nothing more loving, nothing more kingly, than this story, this truth, this week. This is the true love of the true King and God of the universe. This passion and death are the point of how God will be in the world.

That’s why we “stay and sing.” So we can learn this. Trust this. Begin to understand this. And so we are ready to follow in the same path when our King calls to us.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

One thing I like about a hymn festival for which I travel: it’s usually three days of intense focus – I practice, rehearse, and lead the festival, away from everything else that normally defines my days when I’m here at home. That focus really helps provide for an intense journey for the hymn festival! Each piece becomes joined in a great flow with great clarity – without distractions in my preparations.

This Sunday once again we enter into a week of intense focus: we step into the story, right into the middle of it. What I find so amazing about this week for us, is that most of us must go through it in the midst of our regular, normal (for most, busy and distracted) lives. Work, sleep, school, relationships, bill paying, car repair, etc., continue to demand our attention, yet every day we gather to retell and relive the story which defines us.

While it may seem easier if we were to all leave town and go through the week with total focus, I rather like the “in the midst of life” dimension to Holy Week for most of us. It exposes that inner part of us to our co-workers, friends, and even families. We decline invitations for dinners, parties, etc. because we have something important to do. “I’d love to, but I’m committed to be at church…” It says who we actually are. (Or rather, “whose” we are). It becomes a week of intense focus reminding us that all of our busy-ness is NOT the center for us.

The week begins this Passion Sunday with what has become a two-fold drama. The first is the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We reenact this, beginning outside (or in the undercroft, depending on the weather) and process in with palm branches. Yet, this part of the story is a great switcheroo, as the people thought –“Finally a just King,” not yet knowing they would be the ones yelling, “Crucify him!” Rather, the liturgy quickly moves to the story of the crucifixion from the Gospel of Matthew, dramatically changing the mood of the day’s liturgy.

Then on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we gather for prayer at noon. These times of devotion help me maintain a sense of focus for this week. In the center of the day, we’re brought back to the drama. For those who can make the trek, even though a short service, these draw us back to the week’s significance.

Thursday, the Triduum, “The Three Days,” includes the washing of feet, the community meal, and the dramatic stripping of the altar.

Friday, a prayer service recalling the stations of the cross – at high noon – reminding us of the pain and suffering of Jesus. This powerful service moves through the room filling it with smoke and the anguish of the story through our songs and powerful organ interpretations. At the end, the organ goes silent until the Easter Proclamation of the Easter Vigil liturgy. Once again on Friday in the evening we gather again to recall the crucifixion and adore the cross. The great Solemn Reproaches are sung: “O my people, what have I done to you?”

Saturday evening we begin in darkness and silence as we wait. Five of the great stories of salvation are told, after each we sing in response in darkness. We remember our baptism and its promises – and we dramatically proclaim Christ is Risen – to blaring bells and organ, and we sing a full throttled: “Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds.” After this great liturgy, a great party! Celebrating with champagne and treats – what we love to do for life’s points of celebration!

A few hours later in Easter Sunday, again we gather – a bit blurry eyed but happily so. The choir warms up their voices, and with trumpet and organ again we celebrate a family meal of celebration: Christ is Risen!

April 13: Cantor Cherwien will lead us through the musical responses for Easter Vigil.

An Invitation to Confession

During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.

- Pr. Joseph Crippen

Can You Help? Do You Know Someone Who Can Help?

We have an urgent need for two more tutors for the Neighborhood Ministries Tuesday Evening Way to Goals Tutoring Program. The tutoring program meets the 8 Tuesday evenings in April and May from 7:00 - 8:30 pm.

Tutors work with one or two eager grade school learners - sometimes helping with homework, sometimes working on basic reading or math skills, and always being a mentor. If you can help or would like more information, contact Connie Toavs in the Neighborhood Ministries office or at connietoavs@comcast.net.

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

For their meeting on April 12, The Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, Susan Hill.

Volunteers will be on hand for one more Sunday (April 13) before and after the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.

Noon Liturgy on Maundy Thursday

There will be a simple noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday this year, in addition to the Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. In the evening will be the full rite beginning the Triduum, including confession and absolution, footwashing, and the stripping of the altar.

The noon service is offered to accommodate those who have difficulty getting out in the evening, and will include confession and absolution and the Eucharist.

Easter Carry-In Brunch

There will be a carry-in Easter Brunch between liturgies on Easter morning, April 20. Bring your favorite Easter treats to share.

Night On the Street

On Friday night, April 11, Mount Olive and TRUST Youth will again participate in Night On the Street at Plymouth Congregational Church. Night On the Street is an opportunity for teens to learn about youth homelessness through activities, speakers, and by experiencing what it is like to sleep in a card board box in the parking lot.

We've been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe housing and supportive services for a homeless youth, $140 (seven days of housing and supportive services). All donations to A Night On the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, which provides housing and services for homeless youth. If you would like to make a donation, please contact the church office or Julie Manuel.

Capital Campaign Corner

Sometime this week you will receive a letter from Vestry President Lora Dundek and Pastor Crippen asking you make a pledge or donation to our ongoing capital campaign. As the letter explains, the Vestry is asking for everyone's help to fully fund our designated funds and to provide a two-month cash reserve to help us cope with the ups and downs of congregational giving.
This is a financially healthy church. We meet our budget every year and give generously to causes missions outside our walls. But we need a stronger financial foundation as we move forward into the future, and this is what we hope to gain with this campaign.
Please prayerfully consider your response and return your pledge card as soon as possible. Thanks so much!

Goal: $182,000
Currently pledged: $39,200 Percent reached: 21.5%.

New Video Ministry

The Mount Olive Foundation approved a proposal to start a video ministry project for Mount Olive. The proposal included getting our own fine video camera, tripod, memory cards, and a computer with the capable of producing high quality videos.

As word of this video project has spread, I have heard from several who are interested in helping with the project. We have members with much experience in producing video and I am excited to get people involved. A word of thanks to Elisabeth Hunt for setting up the special Mount Olive YouTube channel.

The first thing I learned is that there is a reason longer movies take time to prepare, edit, add titles, and then have the computer and the internet render them for YouTube and then go through the whole upload and processing process. The learning curve is getting better but the entire process is time consuming, so please be patient. I am excited that we now have our first examples to share with everyone.

Our first video project was to record the four-part Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Series on the Book of Genesis. The entire series is now on YouTube and the links to the videos are below. When you go online to view your first video you will note that under the YouTube screen there is a note that tells you there are four videos. If you click on that note (link) all four videos will appear and you can then click on the next video you want to view. If you save the YouTube link in your “favorite” online file you will be able to access the videos quickly.

Dwight Penas and Susan Cherwien do a masterful job in organizing thought-provoking adult forum sessions throughout the year. As Dwight explains in the opening video, the Mount Olive Foundation approved a grant which allowed Mount Olive to bring Earl Schwartz in for four consecutive weeks. Before Earl’s sessions even began some Mount Olive members were concerned because they knew they would have to miss one or more of his lectures and choir members always had to step out before each session was over. With our new videos anyone can now go back and view all four sessions in their entirety
This Forum project is the first video project and you will see as you view the four videos that I have experimented with titles etc. Looking back, I see I made a title error in one of the bottom titles of video 3 and called it session 2. I hope to correct the error but it literally will take over 3 hours to make the change. I look forward to your comments so we can always improve our videos and that the videos will reflect the quality of worship and devotion we share at Mount Olive.

- Paul Nixdorf

Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Videos
Video #1 - February 23, 2014: http://youtu.be/nzsw0rvT2TU
Video #2 - March 2, 2014: http://youtu.be/JDUkEsLwCeE
Video #3 - March 9, 2014: http://youtu.be/UXTlVxamxqg
(note) an error in the bottom title says this is the second session,
it should say, the third session.
Video #4 - March 16, 2014: http://youtu.be/tNJPn2voGeU

Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks

Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!

Life Transitions Support Group to Begin May 14

Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?
We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?

Beginning May 14, join us for a four-week structured support group at Mount Olive. Cathy Bosworth will serve as facilitator for this group on Wednesday evenings. Each week a brief educational component will be offered with time for you to share personally in a confidential, supportive setting. Vicar Emily Beckering will offer guidance on the Lament Psalms, which we will use as a vehicle for prayer and healing. Tentatively, the group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room. We will establish a firm meeting time when we know what works best for those who wish to participate.

If you are interested in attending, or have questions, please contact Cathy Bosworth (952-949-3679, email marcat8447@yahoo.com) or call the church office. If three or more people express interest in participating, each will be contacted to confirm the group will meet as planned.

National Lutheran Choir to Present “Exalt.”

This Spring’s “Exalt” program showcases the artistic excellence of the National Lutheran Choir with works for choir and organ alongside unaccompanied choral pieces.

Nationally renowned organist, Aaron David Miller, joins the NLC for a program that is both affable and energizing. Some of the works on the program include: Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum; a world premiere of a commission by Zachary Wadsworth, Great or Small; and Frank Martin’s Mass for Unaccompanied Double Chorus.

Organ pipes and choral pipes join together for a unique experience that will leave the listener inspired and revitalized. NLC Artistic Director, David Cherwien, conducts.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Today, Jesus calls us out of our tombs and releases us from everything that binds us so that we may live anew and set others free in Jesus’ name. Vicar Emily Beckering, Fifth Sunday in Lent, year A; texts: John 11:1-45, Ezekiel 37:1-14

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Before we get to what God would have us hear today, I’d like to share how the Holy Spirit has been at work for us this week.

Last Sunday, after praying for God to reveal what we would need to hear in worship today, something very clear and specific emerged from John’s gospel. It was such good news and so life-giving that I thought, “Wow! That’s worth sharing!” So I did share it with some of my friends at seminary during Bible study on Monday. Afterwards, based on how the news affected them, I felt even more convicted about what God wanted us to hear.

Then, on Tuesday morning, I felt nudged, drawn—compelled, really—to read ahead in Journey into Lent, by Susan Cherwien, to her reflections for the upcoming Saturday, which was yesterday, April 5th. Upon reading it, I discovered that she and I had heard the same thing from today’s Gospel. And I thought, “Shoot! Do I really need to say it again when it’s already been written so beautifully?”

Through the people at Tuesday noon Bible study, however, and through more conversations throughout the week, it became evident that the Holy Spirit had led me to Susan’s devotion. It was as if God was saying, “Look, this really needs to be said.” Through all of this, the Holy Spirit was at work to make sure that we could all hear God’s word for us multiple times and in multiple ways if need be. Apparently, God has something very important for us to hear today, and it’s just what we need.

In order to hear it, we must first recognize that Lazarus is not the only one who is locked in a tomb; he isn’t the only one who needs to be unbound and set free.

There is much in our own lives that holds us captive, that binds us, that prevents us from being who God has made us to be. We can feel like prisoners without choices or power: we are in bondage and cannot free ourselves.

Some of us are in bondage to productivity, to accomplishment, to feeling like we always have to do everything perfectly, to have everything under control. Others of us are in bondage to other people’s opinions about us; it can be difficult to make decisions without feeling the need to please or to look good in others’ eyes.

Some of us are chained to defining ourselves by our talents, intelligence, or our perceived lack thereof. These chains can weigh so heavily upon us that we always feel the need to prove ourselves to others.

There are economic binds which we face: we worry if there will be enough, if we will be able to pay the bills and are uncertain about which decisions to make. We are also bound by unethical systems: systems in which we contribute to environmental destruction, to racism, to prejudice, to poverty. We can even be chained by anger, bitterness, unfaithfulness, and comparing ourselves to others. Although we wish that we could live differently, we may find ourselves doing that which we do not want to do; time and time again we hurt those who we love.

Sometimes, these worries and patterns of thought and behavior can become so all-encompassing that we are literally entombed: we can be locked away in a tomb of feeling helpless, of guilt or shame, of insecurity, of hiding who we are in order to win love. We can feel trapped in a grave of sickness, of mental illness, of an abusive relationship, of addictions, of perfecting our body. And of course, there is fear; fear in all of its forms. Fear of what tomorrow will bring. Fear that the end is near or nowhere in sight. Fear of failure: of failing as a partner, a spouse, a parent, a friend, a disciple. In the darkness of the tomb, we may begin to doubt whether Christ’s promises are true or are for us.

Although we are afraid, we can also be terrified by life outside of the tomb that we have come to know so well, and so we may retreat even deeper into the darkness. We may wrap ourselves tighter in that which binds us because we are afraid to deal with it. We can lock ourselves away in the tomb rather than risk exposing that which with we struggle.

All of this can feel too overpowering, too big for us to handle, too shameful for God or for anyone else to know about. Like Martha who says, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days,” we can find ourselves saying, “Lord, don’t go there. Don’t bother. It’s too late. There’s only death.”

We look within our tombs and like Israel say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” “We’ve messed up too much this time, gone too far. There’s nothing left to do, nothing left to say.”

But God does have something to say, and yearns for us to hear it!

God’s word to us today is this: “I am the Lord your God: I am going to open you graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people: and I will bring you back to the land of the living. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.”

Jesus is calling each of us by name saying, “Come out! Come out of ¬fear and out of shame. Come out of loneliness and self-hatred. Be free of the guilt, you are forgiven. Let go of doubt, you are mine!”

See how Jesus loves us!

There is no darkness too thick, no grave too deep, no stone, no sin, no tomb—nothing— that can prevent Christ from getting to us.

The resurrection is not only a future promise that we will be with God in eternity; resurrection is happening right now! Christ is making us new. God would have us live anew, live again today!

But the resurrection is not for us alone; it does not stop here with us.

Jesus speaks to Lazarus and to all who have gathered around him. He says to the crowd: “Unbind him and let him go!”

Sometimes we are so tightly bound in our wrappings that we need the community around us to help set us free. This is why God has given us one another: so that we can surround each other with love in our suffering, remind each other what Christ has promised us, and help each other be on the lookout for what God is doing in our midst. We are at once Lazarus and the community at the tomb. There are many other people already in our lives and some whom the Holy Spirit has yet to lead us to who also long to hear Jesus’ words: who need to be released from everything that ensnares them, from everything that weighs on them.

The Spirit of the Lord has been poured out upon us in our baptisms; God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free, and to preach the Lord’s favor. We do this when, with actions and with words, we sow love where there is hatred, seek union where there is discord, and offer forgiveness in response to wrong. Jesus is sending us out today saying, “Unbind them, and let them go!”

When we do this in Jesus’ name, then by the power of the Holy Spirit, out of the tomb of darkness shall come light, out of despair, hope, and out of the tomb of death, God will bring life for all.